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About

DHR Staff & Associates

Double Helix Resources (DHR) is a private company, limited by guarantee, set up in September 2015, by Brian De Lord, with the intention of providing educational and therapeutic consultancy, accredited training and related resources for those working with troubled and vulnerable children and their families.

A network of specialist practitioners and researchers supports the company. They are engaged to work on specific initiatives and projects, as the opportunities arise.

We deliver accredited mentor training to classroom assistants at Brent River College and are intending to initiate a national training centre for practitioners in therapeutic and residential settings, in partnership with the Mulberry Bush Organisation and the Caspari Foundation.

We are also partners on an Erasmus + funded project, Tales & Emotions at Home, focusing on the role of the family in supporting the development of bi or multi-lingualism. It is being led by Foyer vzw based in Brussels, Belgium.

We are presently working with the University of Hertfordshire to develop a series of ‘Apps’ and on-line training experiences to support the development of practitioners, policy makers, family members and volunteers supporting vulnerable children and families.

The individuals that make up the DHR network have all worked as high-level practitioners, researchers and policy makers and represent a diverse range of specialisms. These include the education and therapeutic support of vulnerable children and families, juvenile offending, youth violence, gangs, migrants & refugee communities, fostering and adoption, skills and employment, community arts, social capital, identity, curriculum development and service delivery.

The founder (Brian de Lord) is a former Head-Teacher, youth worker, psychotherapist, lecturer and CEO. He has extensive experience of providing integrated services for the most excluded groups and training for those supporting them.

Having qualified as an English & Drama teacher, he quickly established a strong interest in pupils unable to engage in their education. There followed a lengthy period of running on-site behaviour units in secondary schools, followed by an exploration of the possibilities of informal and community education as a Senior Youth worker. He then founded and was Head-teacher and CEO of the Pupil Parent Partnership, a service for excluded and vulnerable young people, for 20 years. During this time he also developed and delivered a Post- Graduate Certificate course in Counselling & Guidance Skills for Brunel University, as well as an MA in Social Inclusion for Manchester Metropolitan University. This was followed by the creation of a new charity, Europeace Youth, which also delivered alternative education services to students referred by local authorities, but also led and participated in a range of European Commission funded projects focusing on vulnerable young people. He also has 15 years’ experience of developing and delivering a range of EU funded projects.

JIM ROSE

Jim has a long career in work with children and young people mainly in residential settings, including the management of secure accommodation. From 1998-2001 he was the Professional Advisor to the Home Office on the placement and management of young people sentenced to long term custody for serious offences.

From January 2004 to December 2008 Jim was the Director of The Nurture Group Network, a national charity with the aims of promoting and supporting nurture groups in schools and encouraging the development of nurturing approaches to work with children and young people in all settings.

A former Chair of Trustees for the Caspari Foundation, Jim is now Chair of the charity’s Training and Education Committee.

Jim is a co-founder and a non-executive director on the board of The Fostering Foundation, an independent fostering agency. He has written two books, How Nurture Protects Children (Responsive Solutions 2010) and Working with Young People in Secure Accommodation – From Chaos to Culture, (2nd Revised Edition 2014)

Jim has been involved with Brian De Lord in several European projects as an Expert Adviser. He is looking forward to working with Double Helix in a similar capacity.

JULIA GIBBS

Julia is an Educational Psychotherapist and provides individual therapy and mentoring services to primary and secondary aged children in their homes or schools. She also provides consultation services to parents and teachers. She previously worked as an Educational Psychologist for London Boroughs where she obtained extensive experience in schools, CAMHS and service management. She has a PhD in Social Psychology and is interested in working alongside DHR undertaking research and training projects.

BOB TOWNLEY

Bob is a highly experienced researcher and evaluator specialising in the evaluation of publicly funded projects and programmes; particularly those funded through the EU. Over the past 20 years he has successfully delivered over 40 projects in association with a range of research and evaluation consultancies including Wavehill Ltd, York Consulting, Research as Evidence, CERI (Kingston University), LEPU (South Bank University) and GLE Strategies – and most recently, DHR. Over this period he has also been employed as Head of Research and Evaluation for a London Learning and Skills Council and Research and Evaluation Manager at Creative Skillset (the UK-wide Sector Skills Council for the Creative Industries). His specialisms are education, employment, skills, discrimination, diversity, mental health, wellbeing, community development and small businesses / SMEs. He has provided consultancy services to the Welsh Government and the European Commission, particularly in relation to discrimination and diversity in employment. He is currently bringing this range of experience together in completing a PhD study exploring issues of loss and mourning within organisations.

He is currently working with DHR and a wider partnership of researchers and practitioners exploring issues of language and emotions for migrant families across different EU regions, through the EU-funded 'Tales@Home' programme, and has recently completed an evaluation of the 'Citizen 20:20' community arts project in west London (as part of the national Near Neighbours programme). He is also part of the DHR team who will be partners in the EU-funded ‘WHY’ programme, exploring and addressing issues of social oppression and young people’s access to democratic processes

GRAHAM CROWE

Graham began his career as a skilled gardener and horticulturalist who ran many enterprises producing and marketing high quality herbs and vegetables. The sense of ethics forged during and underpinning these early enterprises informed his subsequent career.

He then retrained as a sound engineer working on a number of highly successful recordings and with a range of popular artists in the music world.

He subsequently spent 5 years working for the Pupil Parent Partnership, an independent school specialising in the education of highly challenging young people, as a Sound Engineering tutor and later as a Therapeutic Group & Family practitioner.

He then became an integral part of Suffolk Youth Offending Service, for 9 years, as a Case Manager, initially for a wide range of youth offending but later, specialising in supporting young people who had committed sexual offences.

Graham then operated as a freelance Youth Offending Consultant & Trainer and an associate of Double Helix Resources.

Sadly, Graham has recently died but DHR are committed to developing his innovative ideas around youth offending.

HEMAN YONES

RACHEL PEPPER

With 30 years experience in the arts & cultural sector, Rachel has established & built a reputation as someone who nurtures positive creative experiences. An enabler, who brings people together, joins the creative dots & builds participatory arts opportunities. Grassroots experience is matched with academic analysis combined with openness to collaboration & partnerships. A significant feature of this approach is the role as a bridge between the practitioners and commissioners; linking the local and the global; and being a trusted intermediary. Values, ethics & social justice underpin the work and approach. The content, process & product are informed & rooted in good practice. Seeking creative developmental ways of working, the focus is on quality & engagement.Professional experience in delivering participatory & emancipatory community projects, including cross sectoral partnership work. Contribution to social transformation through research, publishing and participation.A wealth of experience in community research and development. Her portfolio includes partnership working, infrastructure development and the facilitation of public/voluntary sector interface. She specialises in community engagement & empowerment. Rachel has managed and delivered contracts, working with public, voluntary and community sectors, including local government.

Director of ARTification which is based in North Acton and has delivered innovative, empowering arts experiences since 2003 having built a reputation as a trusted, community rooted cultural organisation.

ERIC ANGUS

RUPERT SCOTT

JOHN SAPSFORD
John Sapsford has worked for many years at the University of Hertfordshire in their School
of Computer Science. He managed SDS, their internal software development and
consultancy group, for several years, during which time he managed many software
development projects with the likes of Kodak, Virgin, Ourprice, Budgens. He was also
Associate Head of School for Commercial Activity. Additionally he has been concerned with
student pastoral care within the School and is currently General Academic Manager for the
School with responsibility for staff performance and welfare. He is also is an experienced
counselor/psychotherapist in private practice who has worked for various mental health
agencies in Cambridge and St Albans.

KATE DE LORD

Kate is the current Head of Cancer Services at Healthcare at Home, a company which specialises in providing one-to-one acute health care within the home. Her role encompasses strategic responsibility for cancer services across the organisation, leading service development and ensuring high quality, outcome driven care is delivered and experienced by patients and their families.

Kate originally trained as a nurse and has amassed over two decades of experience managing the delivery of high quality cancer care and treatment within both public and private healthcare settings.

As a recognised expert practitioner within the field, she has spent the bulk of her career at the cutting edge of cancer service development. She has led on the shaping of chemotherapy and associated service delivery in both an acute and community setting, including extensive work in the national policy arena.

Previous roles have included a range of senior posts within the speciality at the Royal Free NHS Hampstead including lead nurse for chemotherapy and directorate nurse manager for cancer. Following which, Kate was appointed Macmillan Network Lead for Chemotherapy at the North London Cancer Network (NLCN) with responsibility for improving the patient experience of chemotherapy care across the NLCN while providing professional nursing leadership within chemotherapy services.

Kate has co-chaired the Chemotherapy Tumour Board as well as the UKONS London Chemotherapy Forum. She co-wrote the pan London Cytotoxic Policy, co-ordinated the NLCN university accredited chemotherapy course and was a key member of the National Chemotherapy Action Group in collaboration with the National Cancer Action Team

Why This Organisation

UNLOCK YOUR POTENTIAL

Through access to the collected experiences and knowledge of DHR associates. Bespoke and accredited training courses are offered in a range of subjects. The accrediting body is the Institute of Leadership & Management.

FOLLOW A NOVEL PROCESS

Use the DHR Service Delivery Framework to ensure a syatemic and epistemic approach to supporting children & families as well as business and organisational practice.

REDISOCVER YOURSELF

Create an organisational culture that encourages exploration and application of innovative & useful concepts, ideas, strategies and tools in a ‘weft and warp’ structure.

THINK OUTSIDE THE BOX

Partner and collaborate with us in local, regional, national and international initiatives focusing on vulnerable children & families.

Brian De Lord

Director

Brian De Lord has undertaken a number of diverse roles in the education and social care fields. He has worked in the public and voluntary sectors ranging from practitioner to academic. Having founded Pupil Parent Partnership in 1994 as a response to the Southall riots, Brian led the organisation from one practitioner supporting 15 young people to an Ofsted registered Independent School with 3 sites in West London and 150 pupils.

30+

Projects

60+

Mentees

14

Publications

10

Certificates

Alongside the above, Brian built up an extensive portfolio of research and advocacy projects funded and published by the European Commission, which have led to a more direct focus on transferring these local services throughout Europe. He then founded a charity called Europeace Youth in an attempt to harmonise his previous experiences into an innovative, new delivery structure to support vulnerable children, their families and communities, underpinned by a systemic-based methodology and a practice that interfaces with statutory services in order to increase the effectiveness and sustainability of their interventions. He is now the Managing Director of ‘Double Helix Resources’.